Page 13 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

INTRODUCTION

addition to American Indians, Anglo women observed and criticized
these groups, sometimes in a positive way, but more often in a negative
one. Anglo women also pushed anyone who was not white or
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mainstream Christian into internal colonies within the e st. I I Despite
the supposed egalitarianism of the W e st, white women considered
themselves f r ee and equal to a greater extent than others, which revealed
far more about Anglo f r ontierswomen than about their targets.
Although these peoples' histories are not included here, the presence
of Hispanics and Mormons is invoked to demonstrate the encompassing
nature of Anglo women's racialist and colonialist thinking during the
era of successive f r ontiers.
For the purposes of this study, the f r ontier period encompasses the
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W e st's greatest decades of white settlement f r om the mid 1 8 ros until
the eruption of o rld W a r I in Europe in 1914 captured the nation's
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attention and, in 1917, its military support.This spectacular era of expan­
sion began after the W a r of 8 1 2 when the Peace of Ghent with Britain
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in 8 1 4 convinced Americans that the earlier American Revolution was
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not a fluke, that the United States had the capability to repulse stronger
nations who tried to take advantage of the fledgling country. Although
the treaty did little more than end hostilities, some Americans dubbed
the W a r of 1812 the "Second American Revolution," meaning the
United States had again pushed the British out of its boundaries. The
war also accelerated the Industrial Revolution in the young United
States, so that f a ctories multiplied and urban trade centers grew.
W o men's traditional home work, spinning and weaving, moved into
f a ctories, drawing women into paid labor away f r om their homes. Every
year, the rapidly industrializing United States attracted more immigrants
fr om other countries, all anxious fo r better lives than they had known
at home. At the same time, the Transportation Revolution resulted in
roads, canals, and eventually railroads that made internal migration f e a­
sible. Soon the nation resembled an amoeba, pushing this way and that
looking f o r places in which to expand.
The W e st seemed to present the ideal solution. The Louisiana
Purchase, bought f r om France by f a rsighted President Thomas Jefferson
in 1 8 0 3 and explored between 1 8 0 3 and 1 8 06 by Meriwether Lewis
and William Clark, appeared to lie waiting f o r American settlers,

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